Along with the exponential growth of the world population, the demand for food is continuously increasing. At the same time it is also increasing the demand for textile. The global consumption of textile is around 75 million tons per year and the textile market is expected to further grow by about 3% per year. This is especially due to the solid demographic growth in countries like China and India.
Differently from the last decades, during which the textile demand was mainly covered by synthetic fibers, cellulose fibers are now preferred because of their ideal textile properties, such as their better moisture management. Cotton has been for centuries the source of natural cellulose fiber (cellulose constitutes 90% of the cotton fiber). However, the continuous decrease of arable land is leading to a severe gap which is expected to result in food crisis and to a further reduction of the available land for cotton production. As a consequence, the demand for natural cellulose fiber has outweighed the supply. For this reason, artificial regenerated cellulose fiber production is growing (e.g. viscose, rayon, lyocell). Furthermore, artificial regenerated cellulose fibers have several advantages: for example, viscose high tenacity yarn has practically no shrinkage and it is absolutely thermally stable.
The artificial regenerated cellulose fiber production is mainly based on wood (the cellulose content of wood pulp is about 45%). The cellulose obtained from wood is mostly destined to paper production; however wood is also used, to a minor extent, to extract cellulose which can be processed to filament yarns. Clearly, the cost of production of cellulose from wood is high and not devoid of environmental repercussions. In particular, the provision of purified cellulose capable of being processed to filament yarns (alpha-cellulose) is very expensive.
In view of the growing demand for textile fibers, a strong need thus remains for providing artificial regenerated cellulose fiber by alternative and more sustainable processes, which can replace or integrate current production methods.